| From: | Paul J. Adam Paul@********.demon.co.uk |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Characters looting corpses. |
| Date: | Thu, 1 Jul 1999 23:34:57 +0100 |
Renouf <renouf@********.com> writes
> 4) Looting bodies takes time. Have a friend put on a jacket, lay
>down on the floor and go slack. Now kick him ('cause he shouldn't be that
>trusting). But seriously, have someone be dead weight for a few minutes
>and try to get his jacket off. It's not easy. And every minute that's
>spent looting bodies is another minute that a potential witness, random
>innocent bystander, or police cruiser might show up.
I can get wristwatch, obvious weapons, wallet, cellphone, and such in
under a minute.
If I'm a well-paid professional runner, that sort of thing's way beneath me.
If the pay for this job is =YP0 for the _team_ (not per person, for all
six of us) then a dead guy's goodies are _well_ worth having. Been there.
Done that.
It really depends on the game. Notice how prices for second-hand body
parts dropped sharply from SR1 to Shadowtech and SR2? Players on a
budget realised how lucrative organlegging could be. Hell with risking your
life shadowrunning, just spot uptown Johns hiring joytoys, then grab both
the John and the joytoy and deliver to a streetdoc.
Organs, =Y%,000 each - heart, two lungs, two kidneys, liver,
pancreas... limbs =Y,000 each, eyes, and so on, and so forth, and it's
_much_ more rewarding than running the shadows. Okay, so you get a
tenth of the list price, so what? A warm body is still worth =Y0,000 on
delivery. Why would you want to risk shooting it out with corporate
security?
> 6) Looting bodies is an excellent way to leave physical evidence
>at a crime scene. You can leave discernible fingerprints on the
>damnedest things (especially if you have blood on your hands), and
>grunting and sweating as you try to liberate the armor from a corpse is a
>great way to leave hair and fiber evidence. If you touch a body in any
>way, you are inextricably linked to that crime scene. If the police
>gather enough forensic evidence to get an identity, they may have some
>very unpleasant questions for you when you next encounter them (this is
>especially true of SINned individuals).
If this is in the Barrens, will the cops even _find_ the body? If you didn't
take it to sell, leave it for the ghouls and the devil rats.
>
> 8) Anything you take from a body links you to that person. If
>it's something simple like a piece of clothing or consumer electronics
>(i.e. you hork the guy's walkman), it's virtually untraceable. But if
>it's something like a gun, that has a distinct serial number and may be
>registered to the victim, you'd better pray that you never get picked up
>carrying that weapon. Again, the cops may have some exceedingly pointed
>questions for you. At best you're in possession of a stolen firearm, and
>at worst you are now a murder suspect.
True, but then that goes for _every_ firearm you buy from your fixer.
Who owned that weapon before you, and what did they do with it, and
what databases does it appear in?
> 10) It's unprofessional. Looting corpses is the kind of low-grade
>scavenging one would expect of a desperate squatter or jonesin' junkie.
Yep. But, in a low-end game, you're losers and scum already, so who
cares?
>Selling off looted goods may net you a little cash, but it makes you look
>like a freakin' ghoul.
In the Barrens, it makes you look like a typical gang member. Which at
least has the benefit of anonymity.
>If you get a reputation for stopping in the middle
>of a well-paying run to loot bodies for a paltry sum of cash, your
>employers are going to begin wondering just what your priorities are.
Key point - "well-paying run". I agree completely with this point - if you're
being adequately compensated for the job, stopping to strip corpses is
downright sloppy. (Grabbing a particularly choice weapon off a defeated
foe is OK - _never_ arm an NPC with a weapon you aren't willing to see
your PCs own)
But if you're playing a low-end campaign where the characters are being
paid chicken feed, then I don't like to penalise initiative. There's plenty of
ways to prevent them getting out of hand without a general prohibition.
> This is not to say that looting doesn't have its place. You can
>learn a lot about someone by going through their wallet, and it can be a
>great way to pick up disposable guns or ammo. But this has to be balanced
>with the risks, and the risks should be portrayed as what they are. The
>first time you have the cops show up on the doorstep of one of the
>SINned characters asking a lot of inconvenient questions, I can virtually
>guarantee you that their looting activities will be seriously curtailed.
Yep. Again, there are plenty of checks and balances. Smart characters can
make money. Greedy characters can get killed. Ain't being the GM fun? :)
--
Paul J. Adam
